September's End: Fantasy

Wake me up when September ends, dear," she said, and then my mother rolled over and fell asleep amid a drift of comforters and overstuffed pillows. A single red-orange leaf lay beside her pillow, like an alarm clock promising to wake her up when her season came around again. As it happens, this had been one of the better summers that I could remember in my whole life, at least when one considers it a good thing when my mother is awake. After some fifteen years of being my mother, I think she's finally learned to remember that I am human, and mortal, and have limitations. I may be awake when she sleeps away the other three seasons, but once she wakes up, she's *up* until winter comes to town, and sometimes even for a bit after that, since the seasons may shift back and forth a little. There's wiggle room. Some of that wiggle room is why I saw so much of her this summer. I wonder how Summer is doing, honestly, or I would if I really knew him. But he's here now and again to visit with my mother and discuss those things pertaining to their separate domains (it's a lot more than weather, let's just put it like that). She got to be awake because of the drought and unseasonable cold that had some of the maple leaves turning colors early. Everyone else complained and worried, but it made me secretly and selfishly happy, because it meant that for once I got to go on a summer vacation with my mother and my father. Dad and I have always had our own little rituals--and believe me, I use that phrase in the most common and generic sense, not like some of the other mortals who've figured out about Mom and the other seasons would!


Inspiration: "Wake Me Up When September Ends" - Green Day
Story potential: High.
Notes: Not sure if I want the protag YA or not, but either way, lives with parents, interesting seasonal relationship. Stronger story potential because this could be a good seasonal sale.